Beijing’s Penis Building Soon To Be Clothed

No really, it wasn’t supposed to look like a giant erection popping up from loins of Beijing. It was all a misunderstanding due to “a coincidence between the angle and this particular stage of construction.” You perverts, how could you possibly think an apparently cylindrical, apparently shaft-like, gold-plaited skyscraper that’s topped off with a bulbous, mushroom like, cap looks anything like a penis?

And so Zhou Qi, the architect behind Beijing’s manliest building tries to explain. The thing looks like, well, a thing, and everybody knows it and, well, we sort of like it. Though the building only provides such a risqué view when looked at from one side (it’s other facets have been said to look like anything from a chamber pot to a penguin).

But this is all about to change: The People’s Daily building will soon be rendered decent, fully clothed behind a layer of silvery liuli, a Chinese glassware that looks sort of like porcelain, and glass. Apparently, what has been erected so far is just the inner shaft of the building, and within a month it should start to look not so penis-y.

I have to say that I’m a little disappointed about this news. As this place is to be the new headquarters of The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the central government, it seemed to be a wonderfully harmonious conception of form meeting function — especially when you consider that the word “Ri (日),” in Renmin Ribao, the Chinese name of the paper, can also be used to mean “fuck.”

Whatever the case, the project’s main architect also had this to say: “The beauty of architecture lies in giving people imaginative space, and this is something that’s hard for architects to predict.”

Though perhaps perilously too little has been left for the public imagination here.

This is what the People’s Daily building looks like now:

This is what it will eventually look like when completed:

So I guess the People’s Daily building isn’t going to be able to do this anymore:

Yes, those are all actual buildings in China. The People’s Daily building is joined by the balls of the Shanghai International Convention Center, and hovering over it is the Bird’s Nest (Beijing National Stadium) and the headquarters of CCTV.

[Photo source: public domain. If you are the rights holder to any of these photos, please let me know.]